Artists & Artisans
Portugal is a country with rich traditions, old crafts and incredibly talented artisans. Bread baking is far from being the only craft that was forgotten with the changes in society. Nowadays we have several traditional arts that are at the brink of disappearing. This is true for regional pottery, basket weaving, milling, windmill builds & repairs, traditional lace & embroidery, tapestry, wooden boat building, build & repair of fishing nets, ancestral ways of cooking and preserving, and so much more. The thing with the knowledge that lives in peoples hands is that it cannot be stored in a book nor in a computer file. It is kept alive only by the act of doing. Like a seed, its best form of conservation is by sowing it. As consumers, we can sow those seeds. We can choose to support traditional crafts, local economies, individual artisans and small family businesses. We can choose a product that has a face, a history, that is traceable.
Ceramicist
Ana Lua
Basket weavers
Fernando Nelas &
Bruno Nelas
Ana Lua is the hands, heart and soul behind many ceramic pieces you will find on my website. She is also a friend, a neighbour and a big lover of my bread, so I am more than thrilled to be able to collaborate with her. Ana is a traveller. She has lived in many countries, exploring different cultures and traditions, specially in South America. Moved by the powerful healing and connective processes of shaping the Earths body she started Yurianaka Ceramics. Yurianaka means Mother Earth in Wixarka, the Natives from Jalisco mountains. Her project is pure reverence to the Mother Earth in form of ceramics made from organic materials and raw forms with natural glazings and ancestral techniques. Ana Lua's atelier is nested in a magical location in Central Portugal, where Nature is strong and vibrant. Beautiful figures, vases, ceramic utensils and sacred ceramic pieces take form under her hands, inspired by Earth's energy and shapes, animals, the feminine and other sacred beings.
Fernando Nelas and his son Bruno Nelas are renowned Portuguese willow basket weavers. They were born and raised in the small town of Gonçalo, in the district of Guarda (Central Portugal). Gonçalo is one of the most famous epicenters of traditional basket weaving in Portugal. In fact, in the 60's, the town was home to 2000 residents, of whom 500 were basket weavers. Nowadays, with the closing of the crafts' cooperative, those numbers are very different. Nevertheless, Gonçalo remains an important capital of basket weaving, and the Nelas family are keeping the art of "cestaria gonçalense", alive. Fernando Nelas weaves willow since he was 11 years old. He is a creative genius making much more than baskets. In his shop, which is also his home, he has all sorts of things, such as replicas of his home, the Titanic, castles, motorbikes, cars. etc, all made out of willow. His dream is to transform his shop into a museum one day. Fernando and Bruno grow all the willow locally. They hasvest it and process it themselves.
